@ Ian Rennie (Posted December 7, 2016 at 10:38 pm): …

@ Ian Rennie (Posted December 7, 2016 at 10:38 pm): Well Ian, your “old bloke” informant is simply wrong, at least in regard to the river red gums on the site, as any aerial photos of Alice Springs from the 1930s will prove without a shadow of doubt.
Further westwards, only a short distance, the river gums gave way to a decent stand of coolibahs, a few of which exist in the streets behind the old gaol and in the railway corridor.
However, the “old bloke” is correct about the other trees on the Melanka site.

Alex Nelson Also Commented

Trees on Melanka block no longer sacred?With regards to the river gums on the site and adjacent to the carpark opposite the Memorial Club, it’s worth recalling that many decades ago they were saved from being cut down due to popular protest from Alice Springs residents, long before there was any general notion of them being regarded as sacred sites.
Local Aboriginal people comprised a significant part of the municipal workforce in NT Administration times, and sometimes were involved in the removal of such trees – this was simply the work they were tasked to do.

Recent Comments by Alex Nelson

Police gets street parking, cops’ private cars in compoundOn the odd occasion I walk past the police station vehicle compound in Bath Street, I recognise some private vehicles that previously were parked in Parsons Street outside the old police station.
I used to see these regularly after finishing work at Woolies and walking home that way late each evening.

Authorities underrated risk to Pine Gap, Alice of a nuclear strikeJust read a comment piece by ABC North American correspondent James Glenday, who notes: “According to the Gun Violence Archive, 9,418 Americans have died from bullet wounds so far this year. 18,785 have been injured.”
To put that in perspective, more people have been killed and injured in the USA by gun violence up to the end of August than there are residents of Alice Springs.
That’s just this year. We think we’ve got problems?

Authorities underrated risk to Pine Gap, Alice of a nuclear strikeI note this book becomes available on September 3, which this year marks the 80th anniversary of the declaration of war by Britain and France (which included Australia) on Nazi Germany following the invasion of Poland that started two days earlier.
In that same month the German Army Weapons Bureau commenced work, and one of its first projects was research into creating a nuclear bomb. German physicist Werner Heisenberg delivered an initial paper on building a workable atom bomb before the year was over.
Albert Einstein, whose equation of E=mc2 lies at the core of nuclear physics, had already warned the US of this research – as did British intelligence – but the warnings were largely ignored until 1941, and the Manhattan Project began shortly after Japan’s attack against Pearl Harbour forced America into the war.
The first nuclear arms race was actually between America and Nazi Germany; the first bombs were intended for Europe but the war ended there before they were ready so ended up being used on Japan.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union had embarked on its own nuclear weapons research program, which was significantly aided by information obtained by spies from the Manhattan Project – and thus was born the arms race of the Cold War.

Aboriginal flag to fly year round on Anzac HillI wonder why everyone seems to insist this issue began 20 years ago? As I pointed out in my article last year (https://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/2018/03/25/in-a-flap-over-flags-a-possible-compromise/) the original request for flying the Aboriginal flag on Anzac Hill was first made in 1989 which by my mathematics is 30 years ago.
It’s also forgotten that the two large flag poles erected in 1989 replaced four smaller ones. These were used to fly the national flag (which flew on the east side of the monument) and the individual armed services flags which overlooked the town. These flags were only flown on Anzac Day and (I think) Remembrance Day but for the remainder of the year there were none.
This issue had its genesis from the protracted political and ideological disputes between the NT Government and the major land councils that dominated Territory politics during the 1980s.

Gallery business case slap in the face of custodians@ Matthew Langan (Posted August 26, 2019 at 6:44 pm): Not sure which universe you’re living in, Matthew, but of all the places you’ve listed as decisions by “Labor Party big knob socialist flogs” the only one that is an initiative of a Labor government is “the dinosaur museum” which I take to mean Megafauna Central in Todd Street.
All the rest were established during the long rule of the CLP before it ended in 2001.
None of these were ever expected to be profitable in their own right; rather, they are a reflection of a jurisdiction that was anticipated to be affluent enough over time to establish and support such facilities.
That aspiration increasingly appears to be a mirage; and in that sense the “case” put forward to justify the NAAG is a forlorn attempt to flog a now very dead horse.

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